An important contribution to the electric lexicon - or at least that's Prof Scott Fahman's take on the smiley.
The proffesor says he was the first person to use the smiley face in a compter message, twenty-five years ago today. He posted the keystokes - colon, hyphen & parenthesis - on a bulletin board Sep 19th, 1982.
It spread from his Pittburgh campus to other universities, then around the world as the internet caught on. Variations, such as the 'wink' - using a semicolon - came later.
There is no hard evidence nobody invented it before he did, so he may be full of shit.
A visual guide to emoticons. They've come a long way since.
:-) Smiling
:-( Sad
;-) Wink
:'-( Cry
:-D Laugh
<:-l Dunce
:-X My lips are sealed
(:l Egghead
\_/ Empty glass
b(-_-)d Thumbs up
Cali Kid